Hospice of Holland Community Report – 2017

2017: A Year of Helping and Healing

1st quarter 2017, was the best start in the organization’s history in respect to census, finance, and quality outcomes.

January, 2017, began a year-long educational awareness initiative called “Understand Hospice” designed to educate individuals on the true goals of Hospice, address common fears, and encourage uninhibited conversation about hospice are and end-of-life.

April 2, 2017 we celebrated our 36th year anniversary.

On April 10, 2017, the Grand Rapids Home for the Veterans selected Keystone Medical Services as its palliative care provider of choice to service their members.

On December 3, 2017, the organization moved to a new computer platform called VRTX, replacing the aging Terminal Services platform, which was installed in 2009.The VRTX will allow for growth within the organization and provide redundant backup servers.

The organization ended the year with 783 hospice referrals, and 686 hospice admissions, setting a record high for the number of persons the organization reached during the year with an average daily census of 126.2 patients.

Keystone Medical Services saw a record high 560 new patients compared to a goal of 528.

As of December 31, 2017, the organization has provided hospice services to 12,580 patients since January 1982.

Volunteers contributed 2,206.94 hours of their time and their talent to help unsure Hospice of Holland patients and their family members received high-quality end of life care, in addition to helping out in the office and at fundraising events

Linda Hulst was named Hospice of Holland’s 2017 Volunteer of the Year.

Hospice of Holland Bereavement Counselors provided support to 424 families, 10 children. Of those, 297 received direct bereavement support due to the loss of a loved one under the care of Hospice of Holland.

Hospice of Holland provides bereavement services to individuals who require grief support due to loss outside of a hospice experience and in 2017, 42 community clients utilized that service. Bereavement services rely entirely on donations.

Our Social Workers invested more than 2560 hours helping patients come to terms with their mortality, offering support during challenging days and nights and assisting the entire patient and family unit as they travel through their hospice experience.

We continue to provide many hours of free community education through support groups and seminars to residents and professional caregivers in Ottawa, Allegan, Kent, Van Buren and Muskegon counties.

Sara’s Story

Sara’s story is one example of how one life can be touched in so many ways with the services provided by Hospice of Holland.

Recommended Reading: Journey’s End

Do we want life support? Do we want interventions that may or may not have any benefit to our quality of life if we are in the hospital or in an accident? This informative website speaks frankly about this issues.Read Journey’s End.

Families and Kids: Camp Hope

We offer community bereavement services at no charge for non-hospice patients who experience trauma from a crisis or from a devastating event. Camp Hope also helps kids to deal with their emotions.